The governor has asked the Feds to consider a high-speed rail demonstration project that would bring European style trains to Southern Californian – and he wants it running by November. The project wouldn’t be true high-speed rail, instead officials hope to better coordinate schedules and potentially shave 50 minutes off current driving time during peak periods between L.A. and San Diego. There’s still a lot to be considered and five months seems like a quick turnaround for something that seems so ambitious. Another obstacle: there are significant stretches of single-track between Orange County and San Diego, meaning one train often has to stop and wait for another to pass.

The little funicular railway that recently reopened in Downtown Los Angeles after being shuttered for years since a fatal accident is under scrutiny by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The NTSB – which offers non-binding recommendations – thinks the line is unsafe without a walkway alongside the tracks. The nonprofit that runs the railway says that they consulted experts who concluded that a walkway would actually make the line more dangerous in the event of an accident as passengers would have to cross the steep tracks to get to the walkway.

Recently, and to much fanfare in the bicycle community, the LADOT implemented L.A.’s first “sharrows” on a short strip of road in Hollywood. Sharrows – or shared roadway bicycle markings – are highly visible painted arrows on the road that tell cyclists and motorists that where cyclists can safely ride. SoapBoxLA opines that this pilot project is flawed as the sharrows have been misplaced on the narrow street. Instead of being placed in the center of the lane, the sharrows are placed far to the right – so that vehicles are encouraged to pass cyclists on the left and squeeze them dangerously close to the “door zone” of parked cars.